Tag Archives: kids

Happy New Year friends! Hope you all enjoyed the holiday season. We had a very merry time with family and friends but now it’s time to switch gears and get back to work! To be honest, it’s always bittersweet for me. Taking down the Christmas decorations, the twinkling lights and all the pretty trimmings of the season makes me a touch sad. Mostly, I think, because my family leaves and heads back to Montana and the house seems drab after all that glitter and shine.

So, to quickly beat the blues, I decided to do a sisterly photo shoot of my girls today. We have been blessed with crisp, cold days full of bright sunshine (very odd for Portland this time of year) so I figured I better make the best of it. The piles of laundry sat waiting while, Claire, Grace and I played in the gorgeous light. Grace even got into the art direction. She would notice the light change and say “Quick mom, you are losing the light!” Too cute! She directed some shots that I took of her…which I will share with you tomorrow.

So here they are…my six year old and my six month old. Sisters and hopefully, one day, best friends.

How has your New Year so far? Any goals or aspirations you want to share? Me? I want to cook more, read more and exercise more!

Have a beautiful Thursday!

Much love to all!

xo,

P.S. For those of you who are wondering…I am using Photoshop to edit my photos in addition to Rad Lab. I’m in love with Rad Lab! :) It’s a bit of an investment but so worth it and you can try it out for free.

Hi everyone! Hope you had a lovely weekend. Grace and I got to work on one of the art projects for my online art class this weekend and it was so much fun. The assignment was to create a vintage inspired portrait on a small piece of canvas.

Grace was anxious to start and dived right in! I love that about creating with kids this young – they have no fear! While I sat there, carefully selecting each scrap of vintage paper, she got straight to work, with no hesitation.

She, of course, finished before me. Her little fingers were covered in glue but she was just giddy – as was I!

Soon we both had our canvas’ prepared…covered in a patchwork of vintage papers and doilies.

I showed Grace examples of Jeanne’s original work so she could envision the outcome of the project. See Jeanne’s beautiful piece below…

We will be attaching these canvas’ to vintage door plates or escutcheons, just as seen above. I have two coming from Etsy! I love how this makes a stand for these tiny artworks!

Here is Grace’s finished portrait…

When I asked her to tell me the story behind this portrait she said, ” She is a princess, waiting in the garden outside her castle for her prince to come.” I melted. My little romantic.

Here are the first steps of my process…sketching in my girl…

I painted out some of the background papers to create a light area.

Using a Stabilo Marks all pencil, charcoal, white gel pen and acrylic paints I filled in the details. I couldn’t resist adding some tiny pearls to her headband. I thought I was finished but something was missing…

The flock of birds and flower in her hair completed the piece for me.

This was a wonderful little project and I can’t wait to do another one! I bought these little canvas’ in bulk from Michaels and Grace has already started her second one!

Okay, I had to share all these beautiful painted faces from Grace’s b’day party…they are too cute!

Such lovely princesses were in attendance! Of course, the birthday princess decided she didn’t want her face painted! Perhaps, she felt it would have detracted from her tiara…who knows? I thought it best not to argue with her. She seemed to just love watching her friends have fun.

Her pre-school set up the most gorgeous tea room for her. Unfortunately, I forgot my bounce flash so the photos turned out terrible. So sad. Instead of looking at my blurry photos (I have SO much to learn!) let’s take a peek at this gorgeous princess tea party…wow…

Do you have some birthday parties to throw this Spring and Summer? If so, head over to Kara’s Party Idea blog for more of these stunning images!

Grace is thoroughly excited that V-day is just around the corner. Everyday she comes home, goes straight to her craft table and draws a million hearts in every shade of the rainbow. As she rushes by me in a blur of pink and white, I ask, “What are you doing?”

She puts yet another Valentine day card on the fridge and says over her shoulder, “Mommy, I’m getting ready! Don’t you know that it’s Valentine’s day soon!”

The girl just can’t get enough of those hearts.

So, here’s what I usually do for the Valentine’s day exchange in her classroom…the night before, I drag myself to Walgreens, buy the super commercial Valentine 24 pack , usually with some sort of Disney princess on it…grab a bag of Hershey’s kisses and call it a day.

Does it get the job done? Yup.

Is Grace excited about her generic Valentine cards? Yup. (You could put a Disney princess on an old shoe and she’d like it!)

BUT… is this method creative? Does it show that I want to be involved? well….not so much. For a busy mom, this works great…but since I’m not really that busy…I think I could do better right? I mean, I didn’t go to four years of art school for nothing. So this year, I have decided that we will be making our Valentine Day cards. Me and Grace. Our little project. So, I’m sure you are wondering what we are doing? Well…right now…I have no idea. So I went on a hunt for inspiration!

I love the idea of cutting out hearts from fabric scraps. The quilting shop near us sells baskets of scraps for just a couple of dollars.

With Grace’s cupcake obsession we have no shortage of these liners. A little glue and some pretty hearts and voila! Easy!

I just adore this idea! Get some cute stamps, a black ink pad and a stack of paint swatches! Just ignore the strange looks at Home Depot…

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Hi there. I'm Ivy and Welcome to my blog! I'm an Artist , Art Instructor and Creative Guide. I believe we are all creative beings. By sharing my creative journey, I hope to inspire, uplift and shine light on others and their own unique gifts. I love featuring other artists that inspire me and you will see me posting my own creative projects, info on upcoming workshops and other goodies. Enjoy and if you have any questions don't hesistate to email me ivy@ivynewport.com